


The only light left to shine

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: As It All Burns [8]
Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, GFY
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-04
Updated: 2015-04-04
Packaged: 2018-03-21 04:19:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3677190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"There is no safety. Rabé, Eirtaé, Saché. Moteé, Ellé, Dormé. You and I. We are all that remains, and I don't know if that's even true."</p><p>--</p><p>Let her commander, her Queen, escape, and the Empire can martyr Rabé as they will.</p><p>--</p><p>"I don't trust anyone, Master Jedi, except my sisters and my Commander."</p>
            </blockquote>





	The only light left to shine

Padmé wakes soon after the sun rises, light painting the inside of her eyelids as red as the blood that had painted her dreams. She's warmer than she's been since she left Naboo, arms wrapped securely around her that had become as familiar as her own. Turning away from the sun, she buries her face in Sabé's shoulder, sliding her arms around to cling to her.

"You're safe. We're safe." It isn't true, won't be true until the others are all gathered here. Until it's not merely her and Sabé, until they're more than Amidala, more than two women alone in the dark, stark-faced and elaborately masked.

"There is no safety." Her voice sounds thin to her ears, and Padmé squeezes her eyes tighter shut, her grip on Sabé's shoulders harder and more desperate. "Rabé, Eirtaé, Saché. Moteé, Ellé, Dormé. You and I. We are all that remains, and I don't know if that's even true."

"They will find their way here. You are not alone, my queen." Sabé's voice is richer, but stripped of the softness that once had marked their quiet space, when they were just them in the royal quarters of Naboo, the others sleeping in other rooms around them. They have all become leaner and harsher in this world.

Padmé wants to hope Sabé is right, that the others live and will find their way out of the fallen Republic to her side. Even if she is wrong there, at least Padmé has her, has Sabé. Is not alone to face the rebuilding of Naboo and the Republic from the ashes, when she is not yet certain where to begin.

She's not sure how long they lay there, wrapped up in each other, before she hears the faint hiss of a door opening, and the patter of small feet.

"Are you awake?" The voice is more cheerful than Padmé feels, and she can feel the mattress shift as Ceseri'sado climbs up on the bed.

Padmé lifts her head, looking over Sabé's shoulder at the small Twi'lek who is standing on the bed now, staring back at her without any apparent regret for potentially intruding.

"You felt sad and a little lonely." Ceseri'sado walks over carefully, dropping down to sit next to Sabé. She reaches over with one hand to pat Padmé's knee, smiling. "We're here, though. And everyone else who's missing should come home."

There's a fierce certainty in that small voice, as if the little Twi'lek is commanding the universe with every expectation of being obeyed. Padmé knows the universe doesn't listen to individuals, but just this once, just one time, she hopes it does.

"And who is everyone else, little one?" Sabé shifts away from Padmé, enough to sit up, and lean back against the headboard. Padmé rests her head in Sabé's lap, not ready to sit up herself, and she watches as Ceseri'sado moves to sit on Sabé's other side, pressed close against her side.

"Everyone else." Ceseri'sado frowns a little, her face wrinkling with concentration. "I don't remember everyone's names, but I know they're not here. Not yet. They will be. Soon, I hope."

"Then we will have to wait for them." Sabé's voice is as soothing with Ceseri'sado as she'd been, long ago. Less rough, less harsh. Perhaps less lost.

"I don't like waiting." The little Twi'lek looks over at Padmé. "It's scary to wait."

"It is." Padmé smiles, reaching out to take one of Ceseri'sado's hands in her own. "We'll have to wait together, then, and keep each other from being scared, won't we?"

She can feel the small fingers tightening around her own, a smile brightening Ceseri'sado's green face. "We will."

* * *

_Once Padmé was safely on her escape pod, they scattered to other pods, launching in different directions, the ship behind them breaking and belching brief gouts of flame into space before the oxygen is entirely sucked away from the fires. Debris that joins the field now orbiting Naboo, scattered with half-destroyed droids that will still cause the attacking Imperial fleet trouble, even as the ships fail to keep the planet safe._

_Rabé draws in a deep breath as her pod is caught in a tractor beam, drawn inexorably toward one of the Imperial ships. Hoping she'll be the only one of them captured, and that no matter how many of them are, the Imperial fleet is unable to capture Padmé. Let her commander, her Queen, escape, and the Empire can martyr Rabé as they will._

_Tightening her grip on her laser pistol, she checks the charge. She'll take as many of them with her as she can. A smile creases her face under the paint that matches that of the others, a mask of war the handmaidens had adopted, a reversal of the roles born of the last three years of conflict. Crimson and black grimace that echos the face of the Zabrak Sith who'd led the occupation of Naboo nine years ago, over a pale mask that echoes that of their queen._

_It marks them out from the others, the loyal guard of the greatest Queen Naboo has had, their Commander, the symbol of hope of all the Confederacy hopes to achieve._

_She listens the sounds of the ship around her, watching the view ports as her escape pod is drawn into the depths of the ship, brought down in a bay with several squads of white-armored troopers._

_Rabé presses herself against the side of the pod, waiting patiently for the troopers to carve open the door._

* * *

"You can trust them."

Saché glances over at the clone troopers that are keeping a polite distance away while their Jedi talk to her. Clones who aren't the Jedi-killers so many had become, who have come over to the Separatists with the Jedi they'd followed before the birth of the Empire. She's not sure she can trust them as much as the Jedi would like her to, but at the moment, they're the best choice for rescuing Rabé before she's beyond their reach.

"I don't trust anyone, Master Jedi, except my sisters and my Commander." She's only working with these Jedi because they had made sure her escape pod wasn't captured by the Empire. Where the rest of them are, she's not certain, but she had seen one of the pods taken by a cruiser. It had taken some work to find out which of them had been on there, and now they're working against a deadline.

The young Togruta grimaces, but doesn't argue, turning her attention back to planning the rescue. She's young, but Saché had been younger when the Trade Federation invaded Naboo. Age doesn't matter, only skill and experience, and Ahsoka has been thrown into war for the last year or more, as much as anyone else Saché knows.

"If we have Commander Wolffe and his squad set off explosions here, and here, we should have distraction for long enough to get into the detention block." Ahsoka indicates the locations on the plans Moteé's contacts had smuggled to them before Saché had left with the Jedi, and Saché leans in, listening as the young Jedi lays out a plan that should make the best use of everyone.

**Author's Note:**

> The part with Rabé is set earlier than the rest, but the part with Saché is roughly equivalent to the one with Padmé and Sabé.
> 
> Title is from "World of Stone", by Blackmore's Night.


End file.
